Mastodawn

This seems very relevant to our current times (and very plausible in the context of the enshittification of social media and the emergent misalignment of almost all current LLMs).
https://mikegodwin.substack.com/p/from-a-law-to-an-ethic

From a Law to an Ethic

Introducing Godwin's Ethic - a framework for individual digital responsibility

Mike Godwin

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Brian Gordon Mar 17

@cstross

LLMs also do this, and are even worse than humans:

"a principle that Aristotle identified: that habits form character. And character...is not compartmentalized. ...the person who casually shares unverified information online because “everybody does it” is practicing a skill: the skill of not caring whether things are true. With repetition, that skill becomes a reflex. The reflex becomes a disposition. The disposition becomes...a misalignment—not just in one context, but everywhere."

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Hamish Buchanan Mar 17

"The platforms are amplifiers."

And platforms, like audio amplifiers, have knobs that can be twiddled to alter the output. Godwin proposes that holding the platforms accountable for how they twiddle the knobs is somehow wrong, but putting all the responsibility for this on the users instead is like letting corporations evade responsibility for their role in climate disruption and the pollution of the planet by blaming individual carbon footprints.

We need transparency and accountability.

@cstross